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Guide to making money
Money is used in World of Warcraft for a variety of purposes. You need it to upgrade your class and profession skills, you can use it to buy consumables, equipment, ingredients and recipes from vendors and at the Auction House, and it comes in handy when you need to get from place to place on the animal airlines (Flight Paths). The number one thing that most players want money for is to purchase mounts. This is a guide dedicated mostly to getting you that first for your regular mount (factoring the discount for honored reputation). It should still be useful for general money-making purposes after level 40 though, and might even make you enough scratch to buy extra equipment on the auction house. Caveat This guide will only cover the basics of making money. Many players have secret strategies for making money that they wouldn't want to put in a public info site, since it gives them their "edge" in the marketplace. If you can gain the trust of a successful WoW tycoon, you should ask them some of their techniques. Saving The most important step in saving up for your mount should be self-evident: saving. You can burn through thousands of gold before level forty if you visit the auction house for new equipment at every opportunity. Even the improper use of your production trade skills can cost a small fortune. Equipment The most important part of saving is to never buy equipment unless you're positive that it will increase your earning potential. This means that virtually all armor is right out the window. A common mistake is to invest in headgear and neckwear at the earliest available levels. While it might seem foolish to leave an available slot empty, you will eventually find something to fill it. In the mean time, the or more you save will serve you well. The only equipment purchases that can be justified at times are weapons. Since an improved weapon can greatly increase the speed at which you kill enemies and thus gain their loot, weapons are often a worthwhile pickup. Still, try to find deals. Look several levels above and below your own for bargains. Try to hold onto a weapon for at least 5 levels. It should go without saying that you should never purchase any equipment from vendors; always use the auction house. And don't always use the buyout. Some of the best deals come from bidding. The best way to save money on equipment is to search out quest rewards that will fulfill the same role. If you're lucky, you can tag along with higher levels to finish a quest you would have no hope of completing on your own. Training There are a lot of powers, skills or spells you can train in this game, and not all of them are useful. As a mage, do you really think you need to invest into the first two ranks of Amplify Magic? Are you still using Heroic Strike at level 32 as a warrior? Think long and hard about how valuable each skill is before splurging on them. This goes doubly for trade skills. If you are dead set on getting a production trade skill instead of two of the more valuable gathering ones, remember that not everything your trainer offers is worth buying. While it might be nice to have a long list of shirts and dresses to produce as a tailor, they offer very little in the way of revenue. Generally, you shouldn't train recipes that produce common (white) items, since they rarely sell well. An exception is Alchemy, since nearly all potions are common items. Spending Auction House Players Vendors Although you usually don't want to buy items to sell from vendor, some items can be sold for much more than you pay for them from the vendor. Keep an eye out for these types of items. A key example of this is the Gnomish Lighthouse vendor in Azshara, who sells the Deepdive Helmet schematic for . Only one may be purchased at a time, but many Engineers will pay upwards of for this schematic. Also, if you don't have a character who can gather some ingredients Revenue Streams World of Warcraft offers a lot of ways to make money. Begging Everyone hates beggars. Don't do it. It can hurt your reputation in the marketplace. If you don't care about etiquette, you can make some money this way, but it usually doesn't work out in the long run. Dancing Believe it or not, some characters make money from tips they get while dancing (see /dance under Slash Commands). This usually only works if you have a Human or Night Elf female and have unequipped everything (stripped down to your underwear). Like begging, this practice can irritate people and hurt your reputation. It isn't as bad a breach of etiquette, but like begging, the returns are not great in the long run. Enchanting Selling enchants can make some money, but usually only when you have very high level (over 225) enchants and only the most sought after ones (weapon enchants and large attribute bonus enchants), so it isn't really recommended as a good early money making source. Disenchanting If you farm lots of magical items you can't sell, you can convert them to valuable ingredients that other enchanters will buy (usually at the Auction House). It can often be lucrative to check the auction house for green items with unpopular suffixes, such as "of the Gorilla," with low starting bids. These items usually disenchant into the same ingredients as equal items with more desireable attributes and can be had for a bargain price in comparison. The ingredients obtained from disenchanting these items are often worth more than you'll pay for the item itself in the auction house. Lockpicking Rogues can make some money by picking locks for people and getting tips. Not a great revenue source, but a decent one to supplement multiple strategies for making money. Loot Magical Items Magical items are almost always worth something to vendors, but should generally be saved and sold at the auction house. Regular Equipment Regular equipment is usually colored white or grey, and varies in value. While players are rarely interested in buying regular items, vendors will buy virtually everything. Keep your eyes out especially for weapons, as even the worst of these tend to sell for several . There are a few exceptions. White (or even grey) shoulder armor under level 20 sells regularly on the auction house, mainly because there is nothing better available at that level. Trade Goods Generally you should train and buy (if necessary) recipes to produce sought after trade goods. Most will be valuable ingredients. Vendor Trash Any item with a grey name is considered Vendor Trash or Poor quality. White items are used in Tradeskills or as spell reagents, so you may want to check Thottbot to see if they're worth more than the vendor price. Unless the Poor quality item has some known quest use, you should try to sell it as soon as possible, since it take up valuable space that could be used for more useful or valuable items. You might even want to toss these items if they aren't worth that much. Be careful about destroying Poor quality items, since some can be worth quite a bit (several ) when sold to a vendor. A stack of these items could be worth or more. try not to accumulate these items if they don't stack well (in multiples of 5, 10, or 20), since the space is also valuable. Quests Nearly all quests offer cash or items as a reward, and often both. While completing quests shouldn't be your main form of wealth generation, it is something you are going to do anyway. The key to making the most of quests is picking your reward items wisely. Don't always pick the item that most fits your class - if it isn't demonstrably better than your current item, instead go for whatever reward sells for the greatest amount to the vendor. You can use Thottbot to check each item's value individually, download a UI mod such as Auctioneer to display it in the tooltip, or you can follow the general guidelines for equipment value laid out later in this guide. Trade Skills (Professions) Gathering Mining and skinning are good money professions. From the moment you can smelt copper, you can make good money selling stacks of the bars in the auction house. As your skill increases, so does your earning potential. The only gathering profession that can come close to the miner in raw earning potential is the skinner. A skinner starts by collecting relatively worthless ruined leather scraps, but soon moves on to light leather, which can be sold for a good profit. Higher grades of leather yield higher profits, just as higher grades of metal are more valuable. A skinner/miner has potent earning power through the auction house, but often runs out of inventory space. Herbalism is also a good source of money. Unlike ore which is found only in rocky areas, herbs can be found in many places, depending on the exact plant. The more the gather, the better you can predict where to look for it. Be sure to check on the auction house for what herbs are in demand for a high value; often a lower level one is very valuable, so you can farm an area you already know for quick money. Production Usually, you'll want to produce Uncommon or better quality items to sell. Look in the Auction House for items that sell for good prices, but don't have a glut of supply (this usually drives down the price). Common item recipes to look for: *Blacksmithing ** Plans: Iron Shield Spike (drop) ** Plans: Steel Weapon Chain (drop) ** Plans: Iron Counterweight (drop) These items sell well for decent money, even though they are common quality items. Beware, these recipes can be pricey if you buy them, so try to get a bargain and ask around to see if you are getting a good price. Sometimes you can make money by making items with ingredients supplied by other players who give you a tip to make the item for them. Not a reliable source at low levels, but a good supplemental income source at high levels with good recipes. Auction House Gadgetzan (Neutral) Auction House If you are on your way to level 40 and at level 37 only got around 10gold, what do you do? Most people borrow money from their friends or just go grind some mobs.. But thanks to the Gadgetzan AH i earned my mount money in a few hours. I started with 10 gold and went to the Gadgetzan AH (Walk south from barrens then through thousand needles and then you should get to Gadgetzan without getting any mobs over 40 on you.) At the Gadgetzan AH i found a deviate fish recipe for 6gold, i did a bid, won it. Then i went to the Ironforge AH and put it up on the AH for 20g buyout, and guess what; it was sold in a few minutes. I did this multiple times, and got my cash. This will ofcourse not work on all realms, maybe not on any, because of that the price may be lower or that the Ironforge price is much lower than the Gadgetzan AH price. Well it's worth a try. This won't probably work in Orgrimmar, because when all the low lvl hordies quest in Barrens they often find it, and dont know its real value, and puts it on Orgrimmar ah for 1g.. Conclusion The conclusion is that this article needs to be improved ;) --Jeoh 11:28, 28 Jan 2006 (EST) Category:Newbies Category:Guides